Tap Water

Most Americans enjoy high quality drinking water, but contamination by agricultural pesticides and disinfection byproducts is a problem for others. Check out your water supply with EWG’s National Drinking Water Database.

This week, the House will consider amendments to quickly end the military’s use of the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS in firefighting foam and food packaging, and place limits on PFAS discharges into drinking water supplies.

The cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane, which contaminates the drinking water of millions of Americans and is found in personal care products and other consumer goods, is “not an unreasonable risk” to the American public or the environment, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Senate today passed a defense spending bill including a bipartisan amendment to dramatically expand efforts to monitor the scope of the PFAS contamination crisis and eliminate a major source of the contamination.

Drinking water contaminated with nitrate could be responsible for more than 12,500 cases of cancer each year, according to a peer-reviewed study by Environmental Working Group presented today at a conference of leading cancer and environmental health experts.

Toxic PFAS chemicals, notorious for contaminating drinking water supplies across the U.S., are harmful to nearly every human organ, and the immune system is particularly vulnerable. PFAS mixtures, which are used in a variety of consumer products, can be found in the bodies of nearly every American and in the developing fetus.

A new EWG study published in Environmental Research found that nitrate, one of the most common contaminants of drinking water, may cause up to 12,594 cases of cancer per year, but that’s not its only danger: It can pose unique health risks to children. The good news is that there are steps you can take to keep your family safe.

Nitrate pollution of U.S. drinking water may be responsible for up to 12,594 cases of cancer a year, at a cost of up to $1.5 billion for health care, according to a new peer-reviewed studyby the Environmental Working Group

The Senate will soon consider a must-pass piece of legislation, including a provision to prohibit the use on military installations of firefighting foam containing the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS.

The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to set a drinking limit for a toxic rocket fuel chemical three times higher than agency scientists recommended during the Obama administration.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing today to consider a number of legislative proposals that would begin to address the growing public health crisis from exposure to the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS.

A bipartisan group of senators, led by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Shelley Capito (R-W.V.), introduced legislation today to require the Environmental Protection Agency to set a health-protective legal limit for toxic fluorinated chemicals, or PFAS, in drinking water.

A bipartisan group of senators and representatives introduced legislation today to improve cooperation between state regulators and federal agencies, including the Pentagon, to address PFAS contamination near government facilities and military installations.

The known extent of contamination of American communities with the toxic fluorinated compounds known as PFAS continues to grow at an alarming rate, with no end in sight. As of March 2019, at least 610 locations in 43 states are known to be contaminated, including drinking water systems serving an estimated 19 million people.

In the almost 20 years since water pollution with toxic fluorinated chemicals, or PFAS, erupted as a public health issue, research has found impacts from exposure to ever-lower levels. Yet there are still no national, legally enforceable drinking water standards for any of the hundreds of PFAS compounds currently in use.

The array of toxic pollutants in California drinking water could in combination cause more than 15,000 excess cases of cancer, according to a peer-reviewed study by scientists at Environmental Working Group – the first such study to assess the cumulative risk from carcinogenic drinking water contaminants.

The major role that rural voters played in recent elections has amped up the focus on farm country from politicians and candidates on both sides of the aisle. In the runup to 2020, presidential hopefuls are once again flocking to Iowa, home of the crucial first-in-the-nation caucuses.